View and apply forecast recommendations

Overview

Use the Forecast Recommendation banner on the Financials screen to start a forecast from calculated figures. ServiceTitan recommends a Forecasted Cost to Complete for each expense line. You accept, change, or clear each one.

Starting from a calculated figure takes less time than building a forecast by hand. That makes it practical to reforecast every billing cycle, so you catch cost overruns while you can still act.

Things to know

• Recommendations appear on expense lines only. Revenue lines do not change.

• A recommendation fills a field. It does not change your project. Your live Budget vs Actual figures hold until you save the forecast.

• The banner explains how ServiceTitan reached the figure and shows your projected margin fade or gain. Read it before you apply the recommendation.

• Material, equipment, and subcontractor recommendations use committed costs. These are open purchase order values not yet converted to Actual. They exclude costs you have not yet put on a purchase order.

• A blank recommendation means ServiceTitan could not calculate that line, usually because the project has too little history. A zero means the calculation ran and returned zero.

• Choose Segments view or GL view before you create a project's first forecast. The project keeps that view for its lifetime.

• Accepting a recommendation does not create a cost adjustment. Create the cost adjustment yourself as a separate step. For more, see Create cost adjustments.

• Labor recommendations adjust for how your project has been spending recently. When there is not enough recent history, ServiceTitan still recommends a figure, calculated without that adjustment.

Best practices

• Check labor recommendations against what you know about the schedule. The calculation assumes your current spend rate holds, so adjust it when a crew leaves the job or scope changes.

• Override material and subcontractor lines when you know about a cost you have not yet put on a purchase order.

• Forecast to budget during a project's first weeks. Recommendations carry more weight once actual cost and labor accumulate.

• Record why you overrode a recommendation in the Forecast Note field. This gives the next reviewer your reasoning.

• Review the Over/Under Budget figure on each line before you save, not just the project total.

• Reforecast on a regular cycle rather than in response to a problem. Recommendations update as your project data changes.

Use cases

• A project manager opens a project mid-month and reviews the recommended cost to complete on each budget code. They adjust two labor lines for a crew change and save the forecast before billing closes.

• A controller switches the Project Summary to the forecast view to compare forecasted margin against budgeted margin. They then work the projects showing the largest fade.

• A project manager accepts recommendations on subcontractor lines where every commitment is on a purchase order. They override material lines where a price increase is known but not yet ordered.

• An accountant opens a saved forecast in Forecast Records to see which figures came from a recommendation and which a project manager entered.

How ServiceTitan calculates a recommendation

ServiceTitan calculates each recommendation differently depending on whether the line is labor or material, equipment, and subcontractor cost.

Labor lines

ServiceTitan multiplies your remaining budgeted hours by a blended labor rate drawn from what you have actually spent on the project. It then weights the result against your recent burn rate. The figure reflects whether your crew is ramping up, winding down, or holding steady.

When your project does not yet have enough recent history, ServiceTitan skips that weighting and recommends the unadjusted figure. When a line has consumed all its budgeted hours, the recommendation is zero rather than a negative figure.

Material, equipment, and subcontractor lines

ServiceTitan passes through your committed costs, meaning open purchase order value not yet converted to Actual. These lines carry no trend weighting. Material variance comes from one-off events such as expedite fees and price changes rather than a repeating pattern.

What the calculation excludes

• It does not predict material costs beyond what you have committed on a purchase order.

• It does not forecast a partial period. Every recommendation covers the full remaining scope of the project.

• It does not read percent complete from Project Plan.

What the explanation covers

The explanation on the banner and on each line names what is driving your forecast: labor, materials, or both. It tells you whether your margin is fading or gaining against budget, and flags a project running under budget. On a first forecast it says so, because there is no prior spend to compare against.

View forecast recommendations in a project

1. Search for and go to the project you want. The Project screen opens.

2. In the side menu, click Financials. The Financials screen opens.

   Note: The figures on this screen reflect your current costing method. To review it, click View Costing Settings.

3. At the top of the screen, review the Forecast Recommendation banner.

The banner shows the following:

Note: Click the Collapse icon to collapse the banner. If no recommendation is available for the project, the banner does not appear and the rest of the screen works as usual.

If you have a forecast in progress

When a draft forecast exists for the project, the banner shows a Forecast In Progress label, how much you have allocated so far, and your projected margin fade or gain. Click Continue Forecast to pick up where you left off.

Apply forecast recommendations to a project

1. On the Financials screen, go to the Forecast Recommendation banner. For more, see View forecast recommendations in a project.

2. Click Apply Recommendation. The Create Forecast screen opens with recommended figures in the Forecasted Cost to Complete (FCTC) column.

   

   Note: To forecast without recommendations, click Start Without Recommendation. To return to a forecast you already started, click Continue Forecast.

3. Review the Forecast Recommendation panel at the top of the screen.

4. Click Segments or GL to choose the view you want to forecast in.

   Note: A project keeps the view you first forecast in. In GL view, the panel names your primary forecasting view.

5. Review each line in the table. A recommendation icon next to a figure in the Forecasted Cost to Complete (FCTC) column marks a line ServiceTitan filled for you.

   

6. Change any lines you disagree with. For more, see Change a recommendation on a single line.

7. Click Save Forecast. The Save Forecast? dialog opens.

8. Enter a Forecast Name. Add an optional Forecast Note to record why you made the changes.

   

9. Do one of the following:

   • Click Save Forecast to finalize your adjustments and update the Budget vs Actual table.

   • Click Save Draft to keep your progress without finalizing.

   Note: If your line items do not add up to your Forecast Cost to Complete, ServiceTitan asks you to confirm first. For more, see Resolve an allocation mismatch.

Read the forecast allocation panel

The Forecast Recommendation panel sits above the table and splits into two groups.

Forecast Allocation, on the left:

Forecast Impact, on the right, shows Forecasted Margin in dollars and as a percentage, with a Margin Fade or Margin Gain badge.

Read the allocation figures together:

Note: When you change the total, ServiceTitan shows how far your figure is above or below the recommended amount.

Change a recommendation on a single line

1. In the table, click the Forecasted Cost to Complete (FCTC) cell on the line you want. The forecast panel opens.

2. Review the Recommended Forecast card. It shows the recommended amount and the reasoning behind it. To read the full reasoning, click Show more.

   

3. Enter your own amount in the Forecast Amount field, or enter a percentage of the budget in the field beside it. To remove the forecast for this line, clear the field.

   Tip: Use the Balance to Finish hint below the field to forecast the remaining budget as it stands. Click the Copy icon to enter it.

4. Review the note. ServiceTitan seeds the Notes field with the reasoning behind the recommendation. Edit or clear it as you like.

   Note: ServiceTitan leaves a note you already wrote in place.

5. Total allocation must reach 100 percent before you can save the line.

6. Click Save.

   Note: Clicking Save holds the figure in the sandbox. Complete the save workflow to save your forecast. For more, see Apply forecast recommendations to a project.

To return to the recommended amount after an override, reopen the cell and click Apply recommendation on the card.

Read the line markers

Each Forecasted Cost to Complete cell shows its state:

Hover over a cell to show the Edit icon alongside its marker.

Adjust the forecast total

1. In the Forecast Recommendation panel, click the Edit icon next to Forecast Cost to Complete.

2. Enter the total you want to work toward.

   

3. Click the Accept icon to commit your figure, or the Cancel icon to discard it.

4. Check Current Allocation and Remaining to see how far your line items are from your total.

5. Adjust individual lines until the figures align.

Note: Treat the total as a target. ServiceTitan saves the sum of your line items as the forecast, not the target.

Resolve an allocation mismatch

When you click Save Forecast and your line items do not add up to your Forecast Cost to Complete, the Current Allocation Doesn't Match Forecast Cost to Complete dialog opens. It names both figures and the difference between them.

Choose one of the following:

Note: Your Forecast Cost to Complete does not adjust to match your line items. Whichever figure you save becomes the forecast.

Remove the recommendation

1. In the Forecast Recommendation panel, click Remove Recommendation. ServiceTitan clears every recommended figure from the table.

2. Enter your own figures, or reapply the recommendation to start over.

Compare actual and forecasted figures

1. On the Financials screen, go to the Project Summary section.

2. Click Forecast in the view toggle. The summary figures switch from your actual position to your forecasted position.

   Note: Click Actual to return to actual figures, or Project Costing for the costing view.

Want to learn more?

• Visit ServiceTitan Academy and enroll in Project Tracking Basics

• See Forecast project costs

• See Understand Budget vs Actual

• See Understand project financials